The invention relates to supplying solvent for a plurality of chromatography columns.
Liquid chromatography is a technique for separating the individual compounds that exist in a subject sample. In employing the technique, the subject sample is carried in a liquid, called a mobile phase. The mobile phase carrying the subject sample is caused to migrate through a media, called a stationary phase. Different compounds will have differing rates of migration through the media, which effects the separation of the components in the subject sample. Liquid chromatography is commonly performed with reusable or disposable columns, both of which are usually cylindrical, in which the media bed is bounded axially by porous plates, or by plates containing defined flowpaths, through which the mobile phase will flow. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,708 to Leavesley, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,035 to McDonald et al.)
Traditional chromatography involves a batch process where one sample is injected into one column and one separation is achieved. Many efforts to provide improvements in efficiency have focussed on reducing the time required to run a separation in a single column.
There have been attempts to use a single pump to simultaneously provide solvent (i.e., the mobile phase) to multiple columns operating simultaneously; however this can result in an unequal distribution of flow, owing to different flow resistances in the respective columns.
One commercially available system, the Parallex HPLC available from the Biotage a division of Dyax Corporation, employs a common electrical motor to simultaneously drive pistons in four pumps supplying solvent to four respective chromatography columns connected in parallel.